1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cloth having good transfer-image acceptability, washability and heat resistance, which is used in combination with a thermal transfer recording medium including a heat-meltable ink layer on a substrate, and to a thermal transfer recording method using the cloth.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As one of various thermal transfer recording methods, a heat-meltable thermal transfer recording method of forming various information and images on a receiving material including an ink receiving layer on a substrate using a heat-meltable thermal transfer recording medium having a heat-meltable ink layer is known. This material is widely used for record labels, display labels and advertising materials, etc.
In addition, in cleaning industries, improvements of operating efficiency are promoted using a barcode, e.g., cleaning tags made of a receiving material on which a client management barcode is printed are widely used.
Substrates of receiving materials typically include plastic films such as papers, polyester, polypropylene and polyethylene or synthetic papers. Since a receiving material used as a display label for clothes, a drop curtain for advertisement, a cleaning tag and the like is exposed to a detergent, a washing with a detergent including a bleach, a drying, an ironing, etc., the receiving material is required to have washability and heat resistance as well as a texture and a mechanical strength. Therefore, for such applications, there may be used a receiving material (cloth) including an ink receiving layer formed from a polyester resin or a polyurethane resin on a substrate formed of a woven or nonwoven fabric.
However, since the woven or nonwoven fabric has a low surface smoothness, it is difficult to print a uniform and strong transfer image thereon with a thermal transfer recording medium.
In order to improve transfer-image acceptability of the above-mentioned receiving cloth, various improvements are attempted, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-89252 discloses to form an ink receiving layer including a fine particulate constituent and a resin on the cloth, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-50920 discloses to form an ink receiving layer including a porous polyurethane resin formed from a water-in-oil polyurethane emulsion. However, these are not satisfactory as follows.
The ink receiving layer including a fine particulate constituent and a resin does not have good printed images because of having low transfer uniformity, and needs a high printing energy in printing. Although the ink receiving layer including a porous polyurethane resin formed from a water-in-oil polyurethane emulsion can form uniform transfer images, since the ink receiving layer is formed by coating a liquid including an organic solvent in which an urethane resin is dissolved and water is dispersed in a fine particulate shape, the coating liquid is required to be evaporated and have high viscosity in its production process. In addition, it also has a production problem of needing the organic solvent.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for a receiving cloth for thermal transfer recording, having good transfer-image acceptability, washability and heat resistance.